Bears notebook: Rough homecoming for Manning

Mike Nadel

Monday

Dec 29, 2008 at 12:01 AMDec 29, 2008 at 5:03 PM

Danieal Manning had been one of the Bears' most valuable players the second half of the season. Then came Sunday, when he was one of the biggest reasons they lost to the Houston Texans and missed out on the playoffs.

Danieal Manning had been one of the Bears' most valuable players the second half of the season. Then came Sunday, when he was one of the biggest reasons they lost to the Houston Texans and missed out on the playoffs.

The Bears were up 10-0 and the Texans seemed lifeless until Manning, playing safety in place of injured Mike Brown, blew an assignment and left Andre Johnson wide open to catch Matt Schaub's 43-yard touchdown pass with 5:50 left in the second quarter. Cornerback Peanut Tillman had let Johnson run free assuming Manning would be there; when Tillman realized nobody was covering the Pro Bowl receiver, he frantically pointed, but it was too late.

Tillman called it "a miscommunication," but Manning saw it differently: "Naw, that was all me. I thought it was a running play. Just a busted coverage."

That wasn't the end of Manning's woes. Since replacing Devin Hester as the primary kickoff returner last month, Manning had soared to the NFL lead in that category. But Sunday, on the very next play after he had blown the coverage on Johnson, he fumbled the kickoff. Houston recovered and, soon enough, was ahead to stay.

In addition, Manning was part of a secondary that let Schaub accumulate 328 passing yards, including 148 to Johnson.

It all was part of a rough homecoming for Manning, a Texan who had two dozen family members at the game.

Running on empty

Though the Texans controlled most of the final three quarters, the Bears only trailed by seven points five minutes into the fourth and advanced the football into Houston territory.

On third-and-8 from the 39, Kyle Orton reacted to pressure and rolled out of the pocket. He had nothing but open field in front of him. Even if he somehow had failed to make the necessary yardage, he would have gotten close enough for the Bears to go for it on fourth down.

Instead, Orton forced a pass to Brandon Lloyd, who was covered tightly. The ball fell incomplete and the Bears had to punt. The Texans then clinched the game with an 11-play, 89-yard drive that ate up more than six minutes.

"I just saw Brandon," Orton said. "From looking at the pictures, I probably wished I would have tucked it and ran."

Orton said he wasn't hampered much Sunday by the ankle injury that had bothered him the second half of the season.

Having beaten out Rex Grossman during training camp, Orton completed 58.5 percent of his passes for 2,972 yards. He threw 18 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions and had a rating of 79.6.